I couldn't seem to find a general discussion for the series as a whole, sorry if it is there and I just missed it (I did see the episode topics). In general, as a series that we've seen so far, what do people think? In a related matter, does anyone else find it somewhat amusing that visitors from outer space require a Visa to 'enter' the US?
V (Reboot)
- Thread starter StarshipDefiant
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Well, in Alien Nation, the Tenctonese had to be processed through immigration, so there is clear precedent.
Let's just see if, like in that show, Visitors start showing up with names like Betsy Ross, May O'Naize, etc.
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^Yeah, that was my reaction. Why even bother airing it in the first place when if you're going to shelve it for months after only a few episodes? It's like they go out of their way to tank their own ratings.
I don't get that at all.
I don't get that at all.
^ There were production problems behind-the-scenes that necessitated the 'pod' approach to airing the series.
^Right. ABC wasn't happy with the way the show was turning out, so they kept ordering changes and firing the showrunners, which resulted in delay after delay to the point that it became impossible to get more than four episodes completed in time for the fall season. But they'd already heavily promoted the show for a fall premiere, so they couldn't retract that and save the show for midseason. So they trapped themselves in the position where they had to show what was available now and save the rest for later.
V is a good series, but it'll never be great.The writing is uninspired and takes far too many expected approaches to the material. But it's got some good actors and a durable premise. I'll watch for as long as it lasts.
The political reaction to the V's (such as Visa requirements and individual nations taking their own approaches - and especially Anna's deft strategy in manipulating humans) strikes me as realistic.
The political reaction to the V's (such as Visa requirements and individual nations taking their own approaches - and especially Anna's deft strategy in manipulating humans) strikes me as realistic.
S
Stone_Cold_Sisko
Guest
the show has doomed itself by not being great out the gate. Concept genre shows like this really don't get audience leeway anymore. Certain types of shows can really build their audiences, but I have a hard time seeing genre stuff do that these days, particularly NETWORK genre shows.
The show is just.... safe.
The show is just.... safe.
Well, in Alien Nation, the Tenctonese had to be processed through immigration, so there is clear precedent.
Let's just see if, like in that show, Visitors start showing up with names like Betsy Ross, May O'Naize, etc.
Alien Nation was based in truth, the 1975/6 refugees from Vietnam. My ex was a boat person in a Hong Kong camp when sponsers were found in America. Upon entry her name Cam-Tu was changed to Mariana. She was about 13 at the time, her older brothers were in the army and caught behind the lines. One was later drafted again and disabled in Cambodia. Her little brothers and sisters who made it to America with her father and her kept the assigned name and never used the birth names again while she went back to Cam-Tu.
I am not optimistic about V being granted a long life, but with a new showrunner it could certainly become a much different show.
I would be very interested if they try to take the realistic path and just admit straight up that the whole idea of a 'Resistance' to the Vs is not a very good idea. The Vs hold the high ground and presumably can destroy life on Earth at anytime. Say, 1500 tons of mass accelerated to 15% of lightspeed and you have a kinetic weapon with more destructive power than all the nukes on Earth put together.
What the show needs to do is explore the V mythology and really come up with a good reason why the Vs have come to Earth and what they need from the humans.
I would be very interested if they try to take the realistic path and just admit straight up that the whole idea of a 'Resistance' to the Vs is not a very good idea. The Vs hold the high ground and presumably can destroy life on Earth at anytime. Say, 1500 tons of mass accelerated to 15% of lightspeed and you have a kinetic weapon with more destructive power than all the nukes on Earth put together.
What the show needs to do is explore the V mythology and really come up with a good reason why the Vs have come to Earth and what they need from the humans.
I'll be surprised if this show lasts past the initial season. Sad part is that the show was finally taking off in the last episode. Maybe they'll shock me and the rest of the season will be even better.
I'm surprised it got aired at all given the clear anti-Obamaton/anti-lamestream media bias of the material (which I LOVE, BTW!).
I just hope ABC doesn't ruin it by making it fit their political viewpoint.
So far, it's a great series...
But, more than that, I hope they use Kenneth Johnson's ideas for continuing V. He had nothing to do with that idiotic V: The Series and I recall interviews with him during the 80's and after where he said he had ideas for a followup to his original miniseries.
If memory serves, he had a plot involving another alien race that was at war with the V's.
Now THAT I want to see!
The original V jumped the shark with the idiotic half human/alien girl who had the power of the "the force"...
That was just terrible...and V: The Series was pretty much campy schlock.
Anyway, if it comes back radically changed I'll blame the idiots at ABC for that.
The new series doesn't have any clear political bias. There are things in it that can be read into by either side. Some people took the passing "universal health care" reference from the pilot as anti-Obama, but remember, the pilot also asserted that the crises the world has been through over the past few years were deliberately engineered by the Visitors to weaken our economy and society -- which is implicitly saying that Bush and/or Cheney were actually alien saboteurs. (Which would actually explain a hell of a lot...)
So the show isn't partisan. It doesn't have a clear message like Kenneth Johnson's original did. It's just throwing in random topical references and letting people read what they want into it.
So the show isn't partisan. It doesn't have a clear message like Kenneth Johnson's original did. It's just throwing in random topical references and letting people read what they want into it.
I disagree...
There was clearly more than one Obama-esque reference and plenty of references about blindly following people with pretty faces and a message of hope and change.
Did you take potty breaks during all that?
Nevertheless if the writers come forward and say they weren't intending to reference "Obamamania" then I'll confess to being "wrong"...
Until then, I'll take it as what the evidence suggests.
^All you're doing is proving my point that people can read what they want into the show. Yes, they threw in a couple of Obama-ish references, but those are alongside the Bush-ish references and the generalized media critique, which can be read either way (conservatives distrust the "liberal media," liberals distrust Fox News-type punditry). And there's nothing specifically anti-Obama about portraying "pretty people" as the bad guys. Two words: Sarah Palin.
But their main thrust is a rather cliched, warmed-over paranoia -- all our problems are caused by a hidden enemy out to get us. Which strikes me as closer to right-wing fearmongering, but it also bears an ironic resemblance to Nazi propaganda against Jews (ironic since the original V was an allegory for the rise of Nazism). Paranoia of that sort is pretty much timeless.
So no, I don't see any kind of strong ideology behind the show. I don't see any unified sense of message or direction at all.
EDIT: Besides, everyone knows that Obama's a Vulcan.
But their main thrust is a rather cliched, warmed-over paranoia -- all our problems are caused by a hidden enemy out to get us. Which strikes me as closer to right-wing fearmongering, but it also bears an ironic resemblance to Nazi propaganda against Jews (ironic since the original V was an allegory for the rise of Nazism). Paranoia of that sort is pretty much timeless.
So no, I don't see any kind of strong ideology behind the show. I don't see any unified sense of message or direction at all.
EDIT: Besides, everyone knows that Obama's a Vulcan.
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I think you've hit it perfectly. There's nothing innovative or especially interesting, but it *is* "safe" middle-of-the-road entertainment.
^I agree with Christopher. What is being cited as, from a political viewpoint, potential criticism of Obama's rhetoric, or perceived blind adherence of some of his followers, could also, from a thematic viewpoint, be read as potential criticism of religion, or at least blind faith (there is a priest in the main cast) of some of those followers, with all the stuff about higher powers from from the sky, salvation and deliverance, miraculous healing, etc., which tends to be more left-wing than right-wing. Of course, there's overlap in no small part because Obama used exactly that kind of preacherly rhetoric. And while I support him, or would if he ever got off his ass and did something worth supporting, I don't think that a message of reasoned skepticism and self-sufficiency is ever ill-timed, and hardly needs politicizing.
Basically, they're tossing all kinds of different reactions into the mix, people who eagerly go ahead with the Vs, and people who angrily denounce them for no apparent reasons, and a gamut in between. It may simply be because the show is scattered, or it may be an intentional attempt to depict the broad swathe of expected reactions. I'd prefer to think the latter, but given how confused everything else about this show's production has been, suspect the former.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Basically, they're tossing all kinds of different reactions into the mix, people who eagerly go ahead with the Vs, and people who angrily denounce them for no apparent reasons, and a gamut in between. It may simply be because the show is scattered, or it may be an intentional attempt to depict the broad swathe of expected reactions. I'd prefer to think the latter, but given how confused everything else about this show's production has been, suspect the former.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
I definitely agree with this sentiment. Personally, I have been an avid Obama supporter from the start (and no, I certainly do not agree with everything he stands for or does), but it's absolutely essential to tell stories that warn against blind devotion in anything. And when the series gets closest to these thematic ideas, it's at its best. But when it tosses in gratuitous catchphrases, or engages in its own narrative bias (i.e. the embrace of paranoia by way of its main characters) then it loses a bit of not only its relevancy, but also its legitimacy.
Still, I do not think the series has been that deeply constructed. Perhaps when it resumes next year it will be -- I hope so -- but for now, it barely scratches the surface and is, more or less, content to "stay within the lines" as a "safe" brand of entertainment.
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